the question came up on the tws marine forum, when were the yellow footprints first used at p.i.? let's expand that to ask when were they first used by the marine corps?
i feel this would be the perfect web-site for that answer. i think it would be a great addition to this web-site. the answer is going to be hard to find. at least so far. it's already known they were being used in dec.68. so the beginning goes back before that date. so lets hear it, marines.

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When asked what defines leadership, Gen’l Stanley A. McChrystal said: “In an average organization, when you ask someone (in charge) when you will get something (needed), they pull out a calendar, but in a good organization they look at their watch.”

I was at MCRDSD late 50s early 60's. I believe JFK was photographed standing in them around '60 or 61. They were put in behind Receiving Barracks I believe in 1960. The MCRD Museum should have that info.

I reported to Parris Island in September 1959. I just can't remember yellow footprints. They might have been there, but no big deal was made of them. I remember a lot of yelling and herding together and we spent the next couple of hours herding from one room to another, filling out forms, and taking some dumb psych tests. Of course, all this was done at 'o'dark-thirty' (we arrived around midnight).

The point I wanted to make, is that my Boot Camp Book has about 90 pages in it. 80 of those pages is 'boilerplate,' Marine Corps general information (mission and all that) and generic Parris Island scenes of recruit training (only about 9 pages of my particular platoon). Nowhere is there a picture of yellow footprints. One scene shows newbies reporting into the Receiving Barracks and just shows them herded onto the sidewalk in front of the Front Door. No intervals, no columns to speak of, certainly not standing on any yellow footprints.

If there were yellow footprints in 1959, they were fairly new and had not really caught on yet.

They were not there in 1958 either. In fact, we didn't even see a DI for a day or two! Our escorts on the bus from Yemassee were MP's. At Recruit Receiving, we were herded into the building by clerks that worked there. There was a delay in being picked up by a DI so we spent a full day at the Receiving Center.

They herded us to a mess hall for meals and did some processing during the day but we mostly just boiled in the squadbay that day. The temps were over 100 degrees and air conditioning was open windows with a couple of floor fans. The next morning, we were woken up by our new JDI's. Some of us were gotten out of slumber by the feeling of falling as the DI's turned over a few of the double racks! Luckily, nobody ended up with any broken bones and the process began.

We arrived in the middle of the night, and then crammed into a bus at the main gate and taken to receiviing. We were herded to our barracks the next morning by our SDI and never saw any footprints except those on the backside of the recruits that screwed up...Time was January 1959 and cold as hell...

In 69 the yfp were in ranks and now they are in files. Guess it saves time not having to teach cruits how to Right Face.
First time I heard those charming words Your Other Right you %#@*&%$.
I could see them out the window as the sun rose and was going to ask my new friend with that neat flat hat why they painted butterflies on the street in the Marine Corps but

"From its beginning in 1915, the receiving barracks has been located in a number of places on Parris Island. The initial receiving barracks was located at the old state of South Carolina quarantine station which stood on Ballast Creek where the Depot's club "Traditions' is located today. During World War Two and Korea receiving was conducted at Building 145 in the Headquarters and Service Battalion Barracks complex. In 1964 the facility was moved to Building 631, a 2nd Battalion barracks on Panama Street and at about the same time yellow footprints were painted on the pavement on which newly arrived recruits was placed. In 1986 recruit receiving and the yellow footprints were moved to a new facility on Panama Street - Building 6000 - where recruits are today processed upon their arrival at Parris Island."